Built In Patio Benches For Urban Spaces

Imagine this concrete and paver stone patio without the warmth of these wood benches.

Kind of bare and cold don't you think?

So I turned this previously bare space into a focal point
with these attractive benches.

They were built right into the corner of the concrete flower beds.

With a few common sense building techniques, they were ready to shed water, stay drier and last a whole lot longer.

Detailed Diagrams Showing What Was Involved

The key point to remember when you are attaching any wood structure to a
concrete wall is to create air flow at all moisture contact
points. Concrete is porous and wicks water. So you want to keep the
wood away from it a bit and dry.

This particular design will withstand heavy
rain and humidity for years to come because the bench support brackets
never touch the concrete.

In this case, the location was wet and rainy Vancouver, BC. I know it can
be nice and dry for months at a time during the summer but
the winters are WET.

So here was a solution I used and the benches are still in great shape
over nine years later.

Building Gaps Between Deck Bench Boards

Corner benches can use this building technique very well.

It's a herring bone technique that is visually pleasing and
eliminate 45 degree miter cuts which always expand and shrink
irregularly over time.

Notice how each board (2x2s)in the bench seat is separated by a 1/8"
shim rather than simply nailing each board together.

This building technique
should be used where ever possible.

It is imperative that you create air space around each board - as much
as possible otherwise once the rain comes all the water will sit on each
board and saturate them. Then the rotting process begins.

The result is a set of built in patio benches that are ready for what Mother Nature can throw at them.

But this applies not just to the wet Pacific Northwest but also to humid
areas in the east as well. Places like Georgia, North Carolina, even New
York State can have a lot of wet humid weather for much of the year.

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